(no subject)
Jon Kitna, the man who replaced Carson Palmer, almost broke into tears when he saw Palmer on the training table at halftime of Sunday’s AFC Wild Card Game with the most dreaded injury in sports; a torn anterior cruciate ligament in his left knee. Expected rehab is six to eight months. If all goes well, he could be ready for training camp. Maybe not.
Add another big fat 'What If' to the Bengals list almost of supernatural bad luck. This time, quite unbelievably, it was Palmer dropping back to throw Cincinnati's first postseason pass in 15 years and a former Bengal named Kimo von Oelhoffen now forever a villain tore up Palmer's left knee even as the Bengals quarterback floated the prettiest and longest pass he’s thrown in seven weeks.
A 66-yard strike to Chris Henry, and then Palmer was down and writhing and the Steelers not only won, 31-17, to end the Bengals season, but it put the Bengals’ next season in some kind of doubt, too.
Chad Johnson, Kitna said, was in tears immediately, and Johnson was still wiping his eyes when he met the postgame media.
“Same old Carson,” said Kitna, shaking his head, saying he couldn’t tell if Palmer was hurt or had been thrown out of the game. Upbeat and level as always. “He told me he was proud of me.”
“That’s why I couldn’t go in there because I knew that’s how he was going to be,” said right tackle Willie Anderson. “Great kid. Tough guy. Good dude. It’s hard.”
“I don’t believe in bad luck, but how many teams does this happen to?” asked Anderson, who waited 10 years and 158 regular-season games for this day. “I don’t want to get into the 'What If' thing. We still had a chance to win the game. I’m just concerned about Carson. Everybody has to get on the prayer trail.”